what next?

[timrandlerv10]

i have my tank (fairly) stabilized now. we test for ph, alk, ca, n'ates, mg every 2-3 weeks. i run phosban in a reactor.(poorly...we dont change it often enough, but with our new 6500 light over the caluerpa, we dont need to!) i use a reef octopus 110 skimmer. i dose nanno every week (about 6 ounces of pretty dark green water). i have a refractometer that is at least as accurate as the one at the coral shop in town. normally run 7.9-8.1, 9-10, 0/0/10-20, po 0 or barely measurable, ca 400, mag 1100 (was 750 two months ago, and have been dosing ever since...we used two entire small bottles to just to get it back--wont make that mistake again!), 1.025, 78 degrees, what did i leave out?

light is currently a 175w 20k. we'll be changing that soon, when we move to a 75g--i hope to a pair of 250w 15k (for better growth), and 4x65 actinics (to replace the 20k look).

inhabitants are 2 BIG bta, gsm pair, foxface, 3 chromis, many random crabs and snails, 1 6" wall hammer, 6 heads of branching euphylia, ~100 zoo polyps, ~10 mushrooms, 5 rics.

what should i be testing next? what piece of equipment should i get next?

so far, candidates are:
pinpoint ph meter (i would like to test more easily, but if my alk is good, and my ca is good, why wouldnt my ph be good? more people are saying 'dont sweat small ph swings' and 'people get too wrapped up in 8.3' so....?)
uv sterilizer (hey, just sounds good. anything to keep the bad meanies away!)
ca reactor (our major inhabitants are the nems...i dont think they use much ca...)
some type of controller or analyzer, that would give me digital temp, salinity, ph


i guess testing and equipment should really be two different questions!

i'm pretty happy with the tank's progress, and i've learned to tell when the bulb needs replacing (hoping the drop to 15k will help that too...)
i would like to be able to feed more and be less careful with food, so i was thinking a dentritor or nitrate coil would be good too--plus, i am thinking that the nems are happier with lower nites.

feel free to throw out some suggested inhabitants too!

we'd like to get a clam and a dragonet soon. right now we're improving the live rock and sand thats going in the new tank (75g w/55g sump)--it gets light, heat, food, and pods. and pods get nanno. very low filtration--trying to bump up the carrying capacity of the tank backbone.

Thanks and good luck!

[cd77]

Looks OK, two things I'd concentrate on are nitrates and magnesium. Nitrates (10-20) is awfully high for a reef tank. Getting your Mg up to sea level values (1250-1350 range) may help with your pH, but since your alk is already 9-10, it's a question worth posing to the chem guys in the chem forum here.

I wouldn't add a Ca reactor, or a UV sterilizer. Have you considered plumbing a separate tank (say a 10-20G) for Chaeto only, and perhaps using your current fuge with Caulerpa for pod production (maybe some crushed coral, some LR, LR rubble? (Edit: Just read your last paragraph, a 75 with a 55G sump should help a LOT with nutrient export and help get your nitrates undetectable)

As far as a pH monitor, I've found Hanna to be quite accurate if not less expensive than Pinpoint -- but if you're concentrating on limiting nutrient import, and want quick reads of pH, one thing I've found that really helps is an AquaController -- it gives you a digital reading of pH,Temp, it is easily programmed to control your devices (turn on/off heaters,fans depending on temp, turn on/off lighting with auto-adjusting to sunrise/sunset changes, feed switch to make it easy to turn off all pumps when feeding, turn on protein skimmer a few minutes which is great if your protein skimmer is sensitive to water level changes... and a lot more. I consider the ACIII the best investment I've made in my tank, with an automatic topoff system being a runner up.

[timrandlerv10]

i've gotten some feedback, so here's where i'm thinking i'll go next:

ATO
aquacontroller (maybe not the brand new one :) )
filter sock
24 hour light on caluerpa in new sump (blacked out so rest of sump doesnt get 24 hour light)
more LR in DT
rubble in fuge

anything else?
anyone missing from tank that would help?

[cd77]

You'd have a similar to setup to mine like that -- except for the Caulerpa, which I'd trade in for Chaeto and get a nice ball rolling :)

[mildew]

Maybe it's assumed, but didn't see anything about RO/DI unit and water changes. If I missed it, sorry.

[timrandlerv10]

water--good job noticing.

I was doing a 10-20% weekly water change.

<pause>

yeah, i know :(

NOW i do about 10% a month.

I use ro/di made at home from a spectrapure that works great.

i've had that for 8 months, and its still 0 TDS on output...


ANY MORE THOUGHTS? PLEASE?

thanks!!!

tim

[jefnalyssa]

Your water changes should be at least 20 percent a month. Preferably 5 percent a week. Smaller ones more often is better. Some people do as much as 20 percent every two weeks.

[timrandlerv10]

^^^